Why the hotel industry may become a new disruptor in the co-working industry

In the co-working office industry, there are many cross-border "spoilers" from various industries. But will the hotel industry, with its advantages in asset operations and services, become an innovative force in the industry?

Pioneers, crossovers, and speculators coexist. Who will find a breakthrough in the industry first?

From the beginning of 2015 to now, the development of the co-working industry has gone through a Moore's Law cycle. After experiencing the bubble rising period from April 2015 to the end of 2015, the current market situation is that pioneers, crossovers, and speculators coexist. Traditional incubators, venture capital institutions, management consulting companies, real estate developers and media have all entered this field, including strong participation of industrial capital.

As far as real estate developers are concerned, in the second half of this year, Longfor Real Estate and Beijing Capital Land successively tested innovative businesses in the field of co-working spaces. On November 15, Longfor Real Estate joined hands with the co-working office brand "Dream Plus" to release "One Exhibition Space" and announced plans to develop 300 long-term rental apartments and 20 one-exhibition space projects.

On November 28, Beijing Capital Land, Ucommune and ***Xiangji reached cooperation and formally signed a strategic cooperation agreement. In the future, the three parties will implement it in 18 projects in seven cities across the country. cooperate.

Relying on its own properties and the background of traditional real estate developers, SOHO China launched the co-working brand - "SOHO 3Q" in February 2015 as a breakthrough for the transformation of real estate companies. In addition, Vanke launched its first joint office project - "Cloud Workshop" in July last year, and formally signed a contract with P2 Joint Entrepreneurship Office in September last year, and jointly launched new products, aiming to create a full office ecosystem.

What’s more worth mentioning is that many real estate professionals with traditional real estate operation experience have devoted themselves to the co-working industry: Mao Daqing, former senior vice president of Vanke and CEO of Beijing Regional Headquarters, founded U. Guest factory; Wan Lijiang, the founder of Fangtang Town, was the co-founder of Shanghai Debi Group and had nearly 10 years of experience in park operations before starting his own business; Liu Tianbiao, the founder of Shi'ao International, which specializes in serviced offices, had 5 years of experience in American business before starting his own business. Real estate operation experience; Bai Yu, the founder of Xingku Space, was the vice president of Evergrande and has many years of experience in commercial real estate operations.

The hotel industry has become a new entrant with its own management services and asset resources

It is not difficult to see that most of the practitioners who have entered the co-working office market through cross-border transformation have real estate operation backgrounds . However, it should be noted that the hotel industry has also begun to enter this market in the first half of 2016. Will they be a new disruptor in the co-working industry?

Huazhu Hotel Group is interested in the co-working office market: it has successively invested in Siwei, Fangtang, and Chuangyi

Huazhu Hotel Group was established in 2005 and is the first multi-brand hotel in China. hotel chain management group. In March 2010, Huazhu's predecessor "Hanting Hotel Group" was listed on Nasdaq. In the past 11 years of development, Huazhu Hotels has 12 hotel brand lines and nearly 3,200 hotels.

Since 2015, Huazhu Hotel has begun to deploy co-working spaces. This is another transformation layout after mid-range hotels and long-term rental apartments. In the past two years, Huazhu has invested in It has established Siwei, Fangtang and Chuangyi, and launched in-depth cooperation with Liye Commune.

On June 20, Shenzhen’s local co-working space SimplyWork received 30 million in Series A financing from IDG Capital, Huazhu Hotel Group and Vanke Commercial Real Estate. Huazhu founder Ji Qi once expressed his hope Promote the development of office enterprises through joint investment and cooperation.

On September 9, the co-working office brand Tangtang Town completed a Series A financing of nearly 200 million yuan. This round of financing was led by CDH Investment, followed by Gopher Asset and Huazhu Hotel Group. In November last year, Huazhu Hotel Group and angel investor Feng Bo led a 30 million angel round of financing in Fangtang Town.

On December 2, CREATER announced the completion of a 100-million-yuan financing led by Huazhu Hotel Group. The two parties will further open up online and offline resources. Huazhu will use the resources owned by CREATER in the future. Full product line operation capabilities, striving to create a high-quality all-type office service provider in the exclusive office industry.

In deep cooperation with Liye Commune, Huazhu Group launched a new exclusive office space

At the beginning of this year, Ji Qi, chairman of Huazhu Group, joined forces with Wu Xiaodan and Wu Xiaodan as the sponsors. Zhu Jie and Chen Xiukan founded Liye Commune, a space community product, and announced that this is a new exclusive office space launched around the All Seasons Hotel.

By upgrading the existing hotel space into serviced office products and activating the fragmented office needs of business travel customers, Huazhu and Liye Commune aim to create a "hotel + office" office space. At the same time, this is also the first business model in China to be born through cooperation between the office industry and the hotel industry.

Jinjiang invested in the "originator" of co-working space - WeWork

In addition to Huazhu, another international hotel group has also extended its transformation tentacles to the field of co-working. On October 13, 2016, Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotel (Group) Co., Ltd. confirmed its investment in WeWork, a co-working space in the United States. Investors including Jin Jiang Hotel invested US$260 million in WeWork.

Jinjiang International Group is one of the largest comprehensive tourism enterprise groups in China. The company was registered in 1991. Its main business is hotel management and investment, travel services and related transportation services. Jinjiang Hotel is a member of the group. One of the core industries. Jinjiang’s cross-border capital injection into the co-working space is likely to be one of its strategies for transformation.

Advantages of "spoilers": management services and brand image

It can be seen from the events that two large hotel groups have successively invested in the co-working field that co-working has become a hotel One of the directions of industry transformation.

In recent years, Huazhu Hotel Group has paid more attention to the layout of the entire industry chain in terms of space operations. In addition to the hotel business, there have been frequent cross-border innovation moves. It is reported that Huazhu has now extended its products such as long-term rental apartments, short-term rental apartments, and private offices, and plans to create synergies among its various products and brands.

As a traditional industry that emphasizes offline services, the hotel industry is seeking a new path of transformation and upgrading in the face of the "menacing" trend of the industrial Internet era. Under the general trend of consumption upgrading, people's travel and accommodation needs have become increasingly diversified, and low-priced budget hotels have lost their advantages to a certain extent. At the same time, more people tend to choose non-standard accommodation when traveling, and online short-term rental platforms that can provide non-standard accommodation products such as B&Bs and inns have emerged. The traditional hotel industry has also been affected to a certain extent.

Therefore, the hotel industry has begun to seek diversified cross-border transformation in recent years to adapt to the current new concepts and changes, such as upgrading to mid-range hotels and products, deploying long-term rental apartments, and entering co-working offices. space.

In the future, hotel cross-border co-working spaces will be dominated by three models: accommodation + exclusive space, accommodation + office space, and pure office space. Under the tide of mass entrepreneurship and innovation, the hotel industry hopes to use its own management resources, service advantages and brand image to provide a better office experience for more entrepreneurs or business travel customers, and to create a linkage effect of innovative businesses.

The hotel industry has become a new disruptor in the co-working industry. With its heavy assets, management, services and other resources, what kind of power will the hotel industry inject into the co-working industry in the future? Will more traditional hotel groups enter this field? What changes will happen to the co-working office industry in the future? Only time will tell.

Currently, the co-working office industry is going through a transitional stage from a bubble period to a stable development period. As more and more entrants enter the industry, the industry is quietly reshuffling, and various companies are constantly improving or Develop its business model to respond to upcoming industry changes.

In this process, service has always been the core of the development of co-working offices, and it will be a key factor in determining whether a company can become bigger and stronger. Therefore, slowing down the pace of expansion, not blindly pursuing profits, returning to the essence of service and building a full-process service system are the core advantages of a co-working office company.

The last industry event in 2016, the second innovation award selection is coming again. On December 23, the Four Seasons Hotel Liangmaqiao, Beijing, witnessed the new capital, new industry, new technology and new ideas bringing about new innovations. change. Technology empowers industries and witnesses the next business trend!